Ramanuja Jayanthi at Sri Ranganatha Temple , Pomona ,New York

[Guest guest]

Dear Members of the Prapatthi group :

 

I am so glad to read about the descriptions of celebrations

of Acharya Ramanuja Jayanthi at the Maha Lakshmi Temple

at Massachusetts and Chicago Temple . We had an excellent

celebration at the Ranganatha Temple . During and After Thirumanjanam

to Sri Ranganatha , Sri Ramachandra , Sri KrishNa , Sri Srinivasan

, Sri Sudarsana Narasimha Murhty , Acharya Ramanuja ,

Swami Desikan , we recited ThirupallANdu, Amalanathipiran,

PeriyAzhwAr's Neeraatam and Pocchudal paasurams , Ramanusa

Norrandhathi , SaraNAgathi Gadhyam , Taittiriya Upanishad ,

Maha NarayaNOpanishad and portions of Yathiraja sapthathi

and Yathiraja Vimsathi of MaNavALa MaamunigaL ..

 

Professor Prasad and Myself did pravachana seva next . Professor

Prasad spoke on the messages of Acharya Ramanuja and

his invaluable contributions to Sri Vaishnava sampradhAyam .

I spoke on the influence of the preceptors of RamAnujA on him and

the propagation of Bhagavath RamAnuja siddhantham by those that

occupied the Acharya Peetam after Sri Ramanuja reached parama padam .

 

There was saatthumurai, Acharya SambhavanA afterwards and

the functions came to a close with Prasadam distribution .

Approximately 50K$ were raised during this occasion for the

construction of the Ranganatha Temple at Pomona . There is

150K$ plus this 50K$ in the bank and the committee needs 400K$

more to start construction this summer. Any Bhaktha of Sri Ranganatha

is welcome to contribute to the fund raising efforts to realize this dream

project . I will be happy to send you the address of the treasurer of

the Ranganatha temple for this purpose. The mula Vigrahams are

90% completed in India and are ready for shipment soon . Inview of the limited

time window for construction ( July to October ) the remaining funds of 400K$

for completing the shell structure this year have to be raised before July.

Help by any amount will be gratefully received by the officials of

the Board of Sri Ranganatha temple. Please pass the word on to your friends

and relatives . many thanks . Another point I referred to in an earlier

posting is the magnanimous help of the great sarod artist Ajmad Ali Khan

to raise funds for the Ranganatha Temple. That event was scheduled

for 3 PM yesterday . I could not attend and I assume that it went well

with Sri Ranganatha's blessings .

 

Before I leave the subject , let me mention about the extraordinarily beautiful

Sudarsana -Narasimha Vigraham that is consecrated and worshipped at this

temple. One is indeed fortunate to have the darsanam of this archa murthy

of immense proportions and outstanding beauty. If your travels take you to

New York , please do not fail to have the darsanam of this Sudarsana-

Narasimhan and other uthsava murthys that are worshippped according

to the strictest paancharaathra agama tradition followed at Srirangam .

 

I thank Sri Murali Rangaswamy for his timely , informative and balanced

posting on the life of Sri Ramanuja . I will post a separate note on his query

on Vedantha Saara and Vedantha Deepam of Acharya Ramanuja . They

are indeed shorter summaries of selected Brahma SutrAs . These were

written after the completion of his magnum opus , Sri Bhashyam ,

the detailed and authoritative commentary on Brahma SutrAs of BadarAyaNA .

 

The Sri Bhashyam of Our AchArya was terse , technical and " severely

argumentative ". By the very nature of the exalted discussion , Sri Bhashyam

could not be understood easily by lay men . The most merciful

RamAnujA decided to bless us with simpler and shorter versions of

the subject matter of Sri Bhashyam so that we will not be intimidated by

the lofty Sri Bhashyam. These two works of RamAnujA , Vedantha SaarA and

Vedantha DeepA "eschew controversy and elaborate arguments "

so that simple students of philosophy , can handle the compendious

commentary of the SutrAs housed in Sri Bhashyam .

 

Vedantha Saara is the shorter version among the two

simplified commentaries. It has just a line or two as commentary

on the Sutras . Vedantha DeepA is slightly larger version of the commentary

and is between Vedantha SaarA and Sri Bhashyam in complexity .

 

As all the bhakthAs of Sri RamAnuja know , Sri Sarsvathi Devi presented

her UpasanA murthy of Sri Lakshmi Hayagreevan to Sri Ramanuja for

completing such a magnificient task on writing the commentary on

BadarayaNa sutrAs .

 

Sri Haya Vadhana Para BrahmaNE Nama:

 

Sri RamanujAcharya divya Charanou SaraNam prapadhyE

 

V.Sadagopan